The House of Hades
by marinaSaffran
Summary: My take at the fourth book in The Heroes of Olympus
1. Chapter 1

Hi! No copyright infringement intended, etc.

Characters are all Rick's and I just looked up a few Greek Myths in Wikipedia and made up a couple things about them so don't expect them to be exact or anything. Hope you like it!

P.S.: English isn't my first language so I'm sorry if there are any grammar mistakes or whatever

**I. ANNABETH**

**Annabeth was in trouble.** Aside from the fact that she was in _freaking Tartarus_, she had landed with a brand-new collection of bruises and scratches and, what was worse, on top of her boyfriend Percy Jackson, who was now lying flat on the floor, knocked out; she didn't have supplies or her dagger; and to make matters worse, she could hear a heard of monsters stirring maybe a hundred feet away from where she sat beside Percy, awakened by the scent of fresh demigod blood.

She only heard them because there was literally nothing to see: the pit was pitch-black, and no matter how many times Annabeth blinked, her eyes refused to adjust. The only potential light source was Percy's sword, Riptide, disguised as a pen in his back pocket, but Annabeth didn't dare uncap it and attract more attention to herself, defenseless as she was.

As she had done several times since her, uh, forced landing, Annabeth checked Percy's pulse and heartbeat. All fine, but that didn't reassure her: his eyes remained closed. Annabeth tried calling him softly, shaking his shoulders and even slapping his face. Nothing worked. She felt more and more hopeless by the second.

_Wake up, Seaweed Brain_, she thought as she heard light but numerous footsteps coming in their direction. Annabeth shook Percy again, a little violently this time, as a chill went up her spine and panic started settling in.

When the footsteps were less than ten feet away, Annabeth's mind went into monster-butt-kicking mode. She reached for Percy's unconscious body, grabbed a small pen and uncapped it. Riptide appeared in her hand and, accustomed to the light weight of her dagger, Annabeth almost dropped it. The Celestial Bronze blade shun and revealed the floor to be a clumsy collection of chipped stones, as if every bad piece of rock had fallen here and piled up. And been painted black, of course, because that was all there was: black, black, black, every way Annabeth looked. Five feet to Annabeth's left, a small crowd of seemingly twisted dwarves was approaching. Seven to ten short creatures with hunched backs, greenish dark skin, big bare feet, thin noses, bald heads and beetle-sized black eyes advanced towards her, their long, dirty toenails scraping the floor as they went.

Annabeth scraped her brain for any Greek myth that might fit these horrible gnomes in desperate need of a bath, but couldn't come up with anything. So she just sat between Percy and the unknown little creatures, holding Riptide in her right hand and waiting for the little demons to approach. Two feet away, they stopped. The shortest of them, which would barely have reached Annabeth's knee if she had been standing, licked his lips. He wore a Santa's hat which was dark with what Annabeth thought was dried blood. _From his previous victims, perhaps_, she thought.

"Been a while since Gaea sent us a fresh batch of sweet-smelling demigods, hasn't it, boys?" he said loudly to his companions. The crowd laughed, loud screeching noises that reminded Annabeth of her half-brother scraping his fork against the frying pan, trying to get the last bit of scrambled eggs that was stuck there. She decided she'd better keep them talking until she could figure out a better plan than her current one: to slash around with Riptide and hope all the ugly gnomes disintegrated.

"So, uh- Who are you guys?", she blurted out.

"Shut her up already! I _hate it_ when my food starts blabbering!", shouted a voice from within the crowd.

The Santa Gnome, who was apparently the leader, gave a short, mean laugh and retorted, "Calm down, Gyther. Have you forgotten who we are? We, the kobaloi, enjoy playing with our food. We enjoy playing with pretty much everything, actually." The crowd laughed at some sick inside joke.

_Kobaloi… That rings a bell_, thought Annabeth. "I though Heracles had given you guys to some queen or something".

Gyther's voice sneered, "Like we were his to give away". A second voice replied, "Yeah, Omphale was a total pain in the neck". Then a third, "I liked the palace better than here, though".

At that last comment, hell broke loose within the crowd: angry kobaloi jumped the little dwarf who had said the "monstrosity", as the monsters who were watching the fight murmured to each other. A minute or two later, the fighting stopped; the attackers retreated and Annabeth could see only a splash of blood on the floor where the kobalos had stood.

Their leader sighed and asked in a bored tone, "Can we get back to these succulent demigods now?" An agreeing murmur ran through the crowd.

Annabeth blinked and looked away from the bloody spot. She tried pressing on: "Weren't you, like, Dionysus's partners in crime or something?"

"And good times those were! We tricked every mortal we could get our hands on. We inspired a great deal of children's bedtime songs! But then, of course, Zeus got mad at Dionysus for letting us run free frightening mortals. Frightening! Can you believe that? We don't frighten mortals, we _trick_ them. If they're afraid of us, well, that's _their_ problem. So Dionysus had to appease Thunder Dude, of course, so he dispensed us. We had to get even, didn't we? So we robbed Zeus's pretty little son Heracles. But he captured us and gave us away as a _gift_ to some stupid queen! Since then, we have only killed and eaten demigods. For that, Omphale banned us to the single worst part of the Underworld!" Santa Gnome raised his hands and screamed to the sky- or in the direction of it, since they were so deep there was no sky to be seen, "_Thanks a lot, o generous queen Omphale!_"

Annabeth was quick. As Santa Gnome was looking away from her, she drove Riptide into his flesh right above his bellybutton. The Celestial Bronze cut through like it was butter. In the chaos that followed, Annabeth managed to turn most of the kobaloi to dust. When she looked around, though, there was still one left, Gyther. He was sinking his teeth into Percy's calf. Annabeth spun, eyes wide, and took off the dwarf's head with one stroke. As he crumbled to monster dust, she kneeled next to Percy and examined the wound.

The bite-mark was weird, as if the kobalos had only three really sharp teeth. Weirdest of all was that there was no blood flowing from it. But all of that didn't matter once Annabeth noticed Percy's skin around the bite-mark was slowly becoming a sickening shade of green and her stomach seemed to contract to the size of a raisin.

Panicking, Annabeth picked up Riptide and started to scan her surroundings for anything that might be useful. There was nothing as far as she could see. _If I only had my backpack_, she thought.

Then it occurred to her: she and her backpack had fallen to Tartarus from the same place, so it couldn't be so far, could it? With that in mind, she started walking around, making a sort of perimeter around Percy, going farther and farther. Annabeth kept glancing back to look at her boyfriend's body and, when she was far enough that she couldn't make it out in the limited light of the sword, she had to convince herself to keep walking by repeating to herself, "If you go back, you'll end up watching him die. Better do something about it while you can".

Annabeth had been walking for five minutes when she tripped on a pointed rock and fell face-first on the floor, sending a jolt of pain and a feeling of wet warmth (_blood_, she suspected) through her nose and Riptide spiraling across the air and to the floor twenty feet ahead of her. For the next thirty seconds or so, it was all Annabeth could do to cup her nose in her hands, trying to staunch the bleeding and keeping herself from screaming and throwing up.

Then, remembering Percy's state, she pulled herself together as best as she could and started to make her way to the glowing sword. To Annabeth's absolute terror, just when she was near enough to reach out her arm and grab the sword hilt, Riptide suddenly disappeared, returning to Percy's pocket in the form of an apparently harmless pen.

_You can't freak out now_, Annabeth thought to herself. She looked around, seeing _absolutely nothing_, and stumbled towards the direction where she thought she had come from.

* * *

After walking ten minutes, Annabeth was sure she was going the wrong way. Of course, she couldn't see a thing, so it was kind of hard to tell if she'd passed Percy's body and walked on, but she had a sort of experienced-demigod gut feeling that told her she wasn't anywhere near her boyfriend. Annabeth had to walk carefully, patting the floor with her toes before actually stepping on it, just in case there was some sort of irregularity. She didn't want any more bruises.

Her nose throbbed painfully, but whenever she was close to giving up, her mind reminded her of Percy, sprawled on the floor, unconscious and defenseless, with a potentially fatal wound on his mid-calf. The thought was enough to keep Annabeth moving, though somewhat slowly, walking through Tartarus with nothing to guide her except her instincts.

When Annabeth was close to fainting because of all the bloodloss and worry and sense of dread, she saw something that made her heart leap with hope. A short way ahead, Annabeth could make out a faint glow which looked suspiciously like Celestial Bronze. Throwing caution to the air, Annabeth ran like she had never run before, hoping against hope Percy had woken up and that was Riptide in his hand.

As she got closer, Annabeth's breath faltered and a cold chill went up her spine as she realized the glowing thing - whatever it was - was lying on the floor, not being held by her favorite green-eyed, black-haired demigod. She tripped and fell again, this time shielding her face with her arms and earning a long cut that went from her elbow to her wrist. Luckily enough, it wasn't deep, so Annabeth got up again and kept running, the adrenaline rush erasing all thoughts of pain from her mind.

Annabeth stopped to a halt next to what she realized was her bronze dagger which had fallen with her from Arachne's chamber into the pit. All worries momentarily forgotten, she smiled, picking it up and waving it around until she found what she was looking for. Annabeth slung her backpack across her shoulder and started making her way towards Percy - or where she thought he'd be - a little more confidently this time, dagger pointed at the ground so she could see where she was stepping.

Fifteen minutes of treading through the nearly complete darkness, Annabeth distinguished a lump on the floor ahead of her she gladly realized was, in fact, Percy. Sighing with relief, Annabeth kneeled beside him and dug around her backpack until she found her ziploc bag half-full with ambrosia. She wanted to shove it all into Percy's mouth, but the rational part of her mind kept her from doing, reminding her he could burst into flames or whatever, and they would probably need the godly food during the next - month, was it? Anyway, Annabeth gave Percy as much ambrosia she thought was safe, then swallowed a bit herself for her nose. The throbbing pain diminished almost at once. Annabeth glanced expectantly at Percy, scrutinizing his face for any sign of movement other than his breathing. After what seemed ages, but were probably just a few seconds, she Percy's eyelids flutter and open slowly, revealing those sea-green eyes Annabeth loved.

"Annabeth? I- what happened? Are we in-?" he asked, his voice croaked.

Annabeth hushed him. "Yeah, Tartarus. Pretty cozy, huh? You were bitten by a kobalos, but I found my backpack and gave you some ambrosia, so you should be fine" She brushed his hair from his forehead affectionately.

"A khaki?"

Annabeth laughed. "Kobalos. Sort of like a green evil dwarf".

"Oh. Your nose-"

"It's fine. I had some ambrosia too."

Annabeth checked Percy's calf. The greenish hue had disappeared and the bite-marks were little red scars by now. When she looked back at his face, he was frowning.

"What's that noise?", he asked.

Annabeth heard it too. It was a distant howling, combined with shouts and grunts she couldn't understand. She sighed.

"Monster noise", she said. "We'd better get used to it"


	2. Author's Note

Author's note:

This is not an actual chapter, but it is an update of sorts.

I made the previous chapter longer and added a pre-chapter note and stuff.

Sorry for the lack of knowledge :P (and go easy on me, please)

Reviews are most welcome :)

See you next chapter!


	3. Chapter 2

Sorry for taking so long! Took me some time for an idea to come up, but here you go! Thank you so much for the reviews!

- characters/etc are all rick riordan's and he's awesome, bye -

* * *

II  
Jason

_Jason was worried out of his mind. _

He was on a suicide mission with six other demigod friends, plus their half-goat chaperone and a recently-rescued, dangerously-ill Nico di Angelo. His girlfriend was being driven mad by her Oracle-knife. Camp Jupiter was about to wage war on Camp Half-Blood. Oh, and you know those six previously mentioned demigods? Two of them were currently trying to fight their way through hell. Like, literally.

The only good thing about the mission (if there was such a thing- safer to say it wasn't so bad) was that it was full-on democracy aboard the ship. That is, when Coach Hedge wasn't on his favorite listen-up-cupcakes-i-rule-this-ship mode. If he'd been responsible for leading, Jason was pretty sure he'd be having a mental breakdown right about now.

Lunch dragged on slowly as it always did. Meals these days were pretty much the same, Jason though. They'd each play around with their sometimes blue food (that was supposed to cheer them up reminding them of Percy, but actually just depressed them even more) and at some point one of them would look up and try to talk about the Percy-and-Annabeth-are-in-Tartarus elephant in the room. _Of course,_ Jason reflected guiltly, _that person's usually me_. The pang of guilt could be a falcon roaming the skies above them, for all the good it did him. He spoke up for what seemed like the millionth time.

"I still think we should go get Percy and Annabeth first"

Coach Hedge grunted and got up. "I'm not hanging around for another one of these long, boring talks. When we get to the fighting, you know where to find me" and the satyr retreated to his room, his hooves _clocking_ as he went.

Leo scoffed. "Just don't interrupt a baseball match or he'll throw his bat at you", and rubbed the back of his head resentfully.

"Jason, look", breathed Nico weakly. "I want to save them as much as you. Even more, actually, because I owe Percy loads. But as crazy as it sounds, their situation is astoundingly better than that of Camp Half-Blood. You were born a Roman, man. You know exactly the sort of damage they can cause. We help out the camp, then we help out our friends. Trust me on this, they'll be as fine as anyone can be down there. They've got each other, and let me tell you, they make a hell of a good team. Besides, Percy will probably just kill the Minotaur a third time."

Frank's mouth dropped. "_Third_ time?" he whistled appreciatively. "Every time I think I've heard the best of this guy, something better comes up"

"Oh, come on, Frank!" said Hazel. "Back in Alaska he basically conjured up a tsunami and acted like it was no biggie! And you're surprised he's killed the Minotaur a couple of times?"

Frank chuckled.

But Jason wasn't satisfied. "But they're in _hell_!", he emphasized.

"Sounds to me like they've both been through hell and survived it", said Leo. "Besides, Camp Jupiter will probably turn out to be Camp Half-Blood's personal _inferno_"

"He's right, you know", came Piper's soothing voice. "If there's any two people who can make it down there, that's Percy and Annabeth"

Jason wasn't able to tell if he was being charmspeaked, but, tired as he was, he couldn't bring himself to care. "Okay, fine, I'll drop it. But now I've got you guys talking... how exactly are we protecting Camp Half-Blood once we get there?"

Hazek sighed miserably. "Well, as much as I'd like to make peace with the Romans, we won't be able to do it, at least not at first"

Frank took her hand and squeezed it lightly. "Yeah, it'll probably take some time until they even consider hearing us out. Octavian's got them full on battle mode, and once you get a Roman on battle mode..."

"Bad", said Jason darkly. "Very, very bad"

"The Athena Parthenos!", yelled Piper, her face lighting up. Four confused demigods turned to her, frowning.

"What's the statue got to do with it?" asked Leo.

"It's godly stuff right? Powerful, like the Golden Fleece and Thalia's pine tree, right? Wouldn't that mean we can use it as a shield somehow?" she said, her eyes full of hope.

"I'm not sure that'd work, Pipes" Jason hated to be the one to discourage her, but someone had to say it. "The tree and the Fleece protect the Camp from monsters, not unfriendly demigods"

"Yeah, I guess you're right. It's a stupid idea" she didn't sound so sure.

By then Coach Hedge had come back, probably lured out by words such as "battle", "monsters" and "unfriendly".

"Why can't we shoot them out of our way?", complained Coach Hedge, getting hold of a plate full of _nachos_ for his second lunch.

There was a collective sigh among the group. "Because", started Frank (it was his turn- the Coach asked this about once a day, so Hazel had come up with a system that said each day one of the five would be responsible for explaining it to Hedge). "That's make them like us less and fight us more. We've pretty much started the war already, we don't wanna make it any worse. We've already got more trouble than we can handle."

"But wars are _so much fun_!" said the satyr, munching on his mexican food. Jason rolled his eyes.

* * *

Jason was dreaming of the sea. That on itself was weird, since his father was the _sky_ god and he mostly dreamt he was high up among the clouds. But tonight his sleeping self was walking down a beach he'd never been to while watching the waves. They came and went strangely, mechanically, lacking their usual freedom and carelessness. As a demigod, Jason could only interpret that as Neptune's being sad (Poseidon, whatever). Although the gods weren't supposed to have favorite sons or daughters, Percy Jackson seemed like a pretty good candidate for the spot of his dad's favorite. _Alas, of course they have favorites_, Jason thought. _If the gods lived by their rules, neither Percy or Thalia would exist._

"And what a terrible loss that would be", said a voice beneath his feet. Jason felt a cold chill come up his spine as he looked down and saw Gaea's sleeping face inlaid in the sand. It looked like her eyes were nearly closed but not quite, but Jason couldn't tell if that was because she was getting stronger or he was becoming paranoid. Maybe a little bit of both.

"The sea mourns its lost child as I grow stronger", the voice didn't come only from under Jason anymore. It engulfed the whole beach. "He _is_ his father's favorite, you know. I wonder, Jason Grace, if your own father is as proud of you?" Gaea laughed, the low crackling sound reverberating along the shore.

"Take a look, Jason Grace, and see what you can't save." The sun shifted and everything went dark. Jason saw a small light ahead and stumbled towards it. It turned out to be a Riptide, glowing in Percy's had as he slumped against a wall with Annabeth's sleeping head resting on his lap. Jason could tell he was fighting to even keep his eyes open.

Riptide's light was extinguished as abruptly as it had appeared. And now Jason found himself sitting on a hardwood bedroom floor, next to a window framing the Empire State Building.

Beside him was Reyna, along with Dakota, Octavian, Henry, Lisa and Peter, the centurions. Scattered about were purple Lares, shimmering as they moved. Reyna and Peter had their heads bent low over a map of Long Island while the Octavian brutally savaged a teddy bear and the others engaged in a heated discussion. Jason caught the words "fewer", "Chiron" and "woods". He shuddered.

Suddenly he was engulfed in a thick, grey mist and the beach slowly reappeared around him. Gaea's face was still resting in the sand and Jason felt her icy gaze through her closed eyelids.

"Sweet dreams", she whispered sarcastically.

Jason woke up with a start. He was sweating, the sheets clinging to his naked chest as he sat up breathing heavily.

Still panting, he got up and went in search of a bottle of water. Jason stood on the deck, taking small sips from his bottle and letting the cold breeze play with his hair. As a normal person, Jason couldn't help but think how silly everything seemed in moments like these, when time drags out slowly and all the worries in the world can't keep you from relaxing.

Of course he wasn't _that_ normal. His extra-sharp demigod senses let see farther than most people and his even sharper son-of-Jupiter senses told him they were about halfway across the Atlantic, aside from their height and the temperature and humidity of the air around him. Jason sighed. Sometimes he wished he wasn't a demigod, that he could be a boring little mortal life without worrying monsters might smell and pursue and attack him.

Wondering what his life might have been like if his dad wasn't the freaking sky god didn't do him any good, though, so he made his way back down the stairs to the recreation room where the small fridge was. The kitchen always remained closed at night, though Jason didn't know why- but he suspected it had something to do with Coach Hedge liking to chew magic plates.

Jason was always mysteriously thirsty when he woke up in the middle of the night - as in, _really overwhelmingly thirsty_ - so he threw his empty water at the bin (three points!) and opened the fridge, reaching down for a can of Coke. When he straightened up, he heard someone clear her throat behind him and spun around to find Piper leaning against the doorway, staring at him.

"Is everything okay? I heard you walking around", she whispered. Jason was suddenly conscious that he hadn't put on a t-shirt before leaving his room. _She's probably noticed it too_, he thought. Piper looked like she was trying not to stare.

"Yeah, fine", he said, feigning casualness. "Just came for a drink" he opened his Coke and extended his arm to her. "Want some?"

She looked away. "No, thanks. I won't be able to sleep afterwards"

"Right. Sugar. I guess I'm too thirsty to care" Jason chuckled. "Good night, then. See you in the morning" he kissed her on the cheeck when he passed her.

He was halfway across the hallway when she called him back. "Jason. Wait" he turned back and walked over to where she was standing. Up close, he could see the bags under her eyes and- was it his imagination, or was she thinner than usual? A protective instinct rushed over him and he put an arm around her, running his fingers through her hair tenderly.

"What's wrong?", he whispered.

Piper lifted her face, looking so desperately broken and helpless Jason wanted to hug her tight and tell her everything would be alright.

Tears filled up her eyes as she barely whispered, "I think Thalia's in trouble."

* * *

Cliffhanger, yay! So, it takes some time for good ideas to gather in my mind and stuff, so be patient with me, 'kay? And keep reviewing cause that's what's keeping me going (I think I wouldn't even have written this if it weren't for the positive feedback)

Until next time!


	4. Chapter 3

**III. Percy**

**Being in Tartarus, thought Percy,** was like fighting Kronos. It didn't matter if you knew what you had to do- you could never get down to accomplishing it. For one, your opponent was so much more skillful than you, had so many tricks up his sleeves, even thinking about trying to outsmart him was downright delirious. Also, time down there seemed to slow as if the pit were in charge of it- waiting for even five seconds do pass was tiresome, let alone days. Percy had held the sky on his shoulders, as well as a goddess; he had battled monsters of all kinds, not to mention Titans; he had convinced two enemy river spirits to play nice (and play along) and he had cleaned up a whole stable full of cannibal horse dung. And yet, never had he felt so drained, never had he done anything half as energy-consuming than just being there, in a really, really deep hole.

Not even listening to Octavian was worse than this.

It seemed impossible for it to be any worse, but Percy knew that even then he was lucky – he wasn't alone (he had, incidentally, the best companion he could ask for); if it were so, he'd be a thousand times as depressed as he was now, and if he was up there – which was how he and Annabeth now referred to "the real world" – and his girlfriend down here, he's be so worried out of his mind he'd probably find his way to Caronte and get him to row Percy across the Styx as he had years before.

Not that he wasn't worried – he was kind of mad thinking about his other friends, Camp Half-Blood, Camp Jupiter, the quest, Gaea, his mother, the might-be end of the world, and who would be America's Next Top Model. He'd never watched it, though – he was really just going nuts.

Day and night (though they couldn't tell them apart, so they just guessed, really), Percy and Annabeth wandered about Tartarus with nothing but the faint glow of what little weapons they had as guide. It sucked – fighting a different monster every other hour, each weirder-looking (and smelling) than the previous one. They had absolutely no grasp on their whereabouts, or where they were heading – they just walked, and jogged, and sometimes ran from the monsters they'd rather not encounter, never turning left nor right, just moving forward as long as they could. Then they'd settle down, quietly going over their somewhat mediocre inventory. One would watch while the other slept, then switch, then get up again, take the smallest possible bit of ambrosia just to keep their systems running, and begin exploring again.

Sometimes they'd talk, but not much, since none had anything in mind other than their situation, and their loved ones', and neither would benefit from any of those topics. Mostly they'd just hold hands so tight their knuckles turned white and their palms were sore at the end of the "day", and that desperate clinging to each other was about as far as communication between them went.

On the first two days or so, Percy had tried cracking a joke here and there, but soon enough realized "What's a monster's favorite game? Hydra and seek" wasn't going to cut through the somber mood, especially since they could run into a hydra anytime, and there wouldn't be anywhere to hide.

At the moment, they were making camp – actually, just lying on the uneven stone floor – and trying to figure who was less tired so they could take first watch.

"I can do it, Annabeth", said Percy. "You should get some rest. I reckon that _empousa_ gave you a really hard time".

"No, Percy. You took first watch last night", sighed Annabeth. "And you got pretty banged up too, what with us running into that telekhine". Percy was about to argue, but she continued. "I mean it, Seaweed Brain. Sleep for once, will you? You'll need your strength if we want to go on, you know, living."

Percy smiled weakly. "I don't suppose I could ever talk you out of anything". He gave her a quick kiss and extended Riptide toward her. "It gives out more light than yours", he said.

Annabeth shrugged and took it. "G' night, Perce", tiredly.

* * *

Percy's dream started off like reality - he was in the pit, lying down, with Annabeth glancing around nervously beside him. His eyes were open, and his breath uneven, unlike the average sleeping person, but his girlfriend didn't seem to notice that.

He felt a shudder run through his body as if there was an earthquake and the pit made strange rumbling noises. When all was still again, Percy realised Annabeth had turned to face him- but it wasn't her. Her grey eyes were closed, and when she spoke, it was with Gaea's voice.

"I have even more power here, Jackson. Try not to irritate me, or I'll send my best after you and your little girlfriend. Not that I won't do that, eventually", she smirked - it was so wrong, so completely wrong, to see that arrogant smirk in Annabeth's lips, teasing him. "But I guess you two lovebirds would prefer dying later rather than sooner, so you can spend more time together in this lovely place".

The dream dissolved, and now Percy was falling, waving his arms like crazy, trying to grasp the clouds as if they could offer handhold. Finally, he landed with a louck_ crack! _on the deserted deck of the Argo II. Making a face (even though it was a dream, it still hurt), he got up and headed for the cabins. His footsteps echoed loudly as he went down the stairs, but as soon as he stepped off them, everything was eerily silent. Strange, that.

He opened every door in his way, but still found not a soul. Just as he turned to go look elsewhere, he heard someone coming downstairs and sighed in relief, noticing it was Hazel. The good feeling didn't last, however- she, too, had her eyes closed, and spoke with Gaea's voice.

She said, "I'll get your friends, Jackson".

Jason and Coach Hedge appeared, eyes closed. "I'll sacrifice two and make you watch, then I'll let my guards do as they please with the others as you stand by, unable to save them", the three said in unison. It was three times as terrifyng, as if there were three Gaeas threatening him (one was bad enough).

They were followed by Frank. "You will regret ever raising a finger against me, demigod".

Percy saw Piper at the top of the stairs. " I may not have your cooperation, but I _can _put you through a whole lot of pain", and she opened her eyes, and there were none; Percy was used to gods having burning flames where their eyes should be- but now there was _nothing_. Just pitch-black darkness, and yet, it emanated such fury, such hate, that it obscured Percy's vision, drowning him in anger, and he felt himself go limp.

He was falling again- except not as fast, and in total darkness. _I fell into her eyes, _Percy thought._ I really did._

He landed softly this time, five feet away from the hunched figure of a girl surrounded by black, save for a silver bow discarded beside her. She was crying, it seemed, and a sob shook her shoulders once in a while. Percy noticed her blakc hair, cut in a peculiar yet utterly familiar way, but he didn't really register what he was seeing until she looked up at him, eletric blue eyes wide, and shouted, "Percy!", in a scared tone.

Percy didn't know where the voice came from, but he recognized it (he'd been hearing it way too much since the beginning of this dream) as it whispered in his ear like the wind rustling leaves of grass.

"I've already got one...". Percy shivered.

He kept looking at Thalia, and she kept screaming his name, her voice slowly changing into one he'd grown even more accostumed to hearing this past few days.

Earthquake again, and Percy woke with Annabeth shaking his shoulders violently. "Percy, _wake up!_"

It took him about two seconds to realize the reason behind her distress. Lucky thing he'd been looking down, because just as he heard the hiss of the snakes in her hair, he recognized Aunt Em's clothes as she towered above them both. Percy shut his eyes tight as his hand automatically went to his jeans pocket.


End file.
